For close to four years, my breeding pairs of Julidochromis dickfeldi spawned regularly. I have posted many times about them and their prolific breeding.
In fact, I have mentioned several times that they have almost singlehandedly funded the hobby for me. I trade the juveniles for supplies at my LFS. How many offspring have the collectively produced? No idea, but I am guessing it is close to 1,000.
However, that funding plan seems to have dried up. Neither of my breeding pairs have spawned in more than four months. Why? Great question. Dickfeldi will cease reproducing when the density of offspring in the same tank reaches a certain level, at least that’s been my experience. As I have stated before, dickfeldi will continue to spawn through multiple broods, but they have a limit.
One tank with a pair of breeders shares that tank with one subadult offspring. The other pair shares a tank with three smaller juveniles. In the past, that would not have slowed them down one bit. Nonetheless, both pairs have ceased breeding.
I don’t believe it’s the water because I have other species that continue to spawn. Since both pairs were about the same age, I can only surmise that they’ve stopped because of age. I am not sure what the breeding age span of this species is. If you know, send me a note in the comments.
My Julidochromis marlieri breeders have stopped breeding now too. They have been breeding for about five years. I’ve got another tank going with pairs starting to form to replace the older pair.
If I recall correctly, my last breeding pair of J. marlieri also just abruptly stopped. Your timeline on their breeding years seems similar. It would be interesting to know what the breeding years are for all aquaria cichlid species.